Can an entire E46 M3 S54 motor be pulled by HPF's service manager Jon before HPF's owner Chris pulls an N54 turbo manifold?

Can an entire E46 M3 S54 motor be pulled by HPF's service manager Jon before HPF's owner Chris pulls an N54 turbo manifold?

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Can an entire E46 M3 S54 motor be pulled by HPF's service manager Jon before HPF's owner Chris pulls an N54 turbo manifold?

Here is an interesting video courtesy of Horsepower Freaks put out to announce the launch of their blog. The shop service manager Jon bet the owner of Horsepower Freaks Chris that he could pull an S54 motor out of an E46 M3 faster than Chris would be able to remove HPF's N54 exhaust manifold. Jon opted to eat his slice of pizza before beginning giving Chris a decent head start. In defense of Chris, Jon pulls these motors pretty regularly while Chris is usually sitting in front of a computer screen. No shame in that.

Watch the video below to see what happens. All we have to say is we would never race Jon when it comes to working on an E46 M3. And it also looks like Chris has some tools to replace.

HPF is an amazing company (as I've done an HPF car at work), and Jon is definitely not a n00b...but all you did was unbolt the subframe and transmission carrier all 1 piece. If you pulled the motor....just the motor through the engine bay and dropped the transmission it'd be a more cool time lapse to watch rather than the video. Of course if you haven't ever done this type of thing then pulling "a whole motor" sounds like a lot.

HPF is an amazing company (as I've done an HPF car at work), and Jon is definitely not a n00b...but all you did was unbolt the subframe and transmission carrier all 1 piece. If you pulled the motor....just the motor through the engine bay and dropped the transmission it'd be a more cool time lapse to watch rather than the video. Of course if you haven't ever done this type of thing then pulling "a whole motor" sounds like a lot.

HPF is an amazing company (as I've done an HPF car at work), and Jon is definitely not a n00b...but all you did was unbolt the subframe and transmission carrier all 1 piece. If you pulled the motor....just the motor through the engine bay and dropped the transmission it'd be a more cool time lapse to watch rather than the video. Of course if you haven't ever done this type of thing then pulling "a whole motor" sounds like a lot.

While not necessarily unique to just HPF the carrier that john uses to pull the motor and subframe out from underneath was conceived from a $15,000 tool he saw at an Audi dealership. He then made something that accomplished the same task for less than $500 in parts and has probably "pulled" more than 50 motors using it. There are also plenty of things you need to do before unbolting an entire subframe.. and John likely has those steps memorized.. keep in mind he was going up against Chris who was 'simply unbolting a manifold' ..

PS: I've heard stories of John dropping the motors in from the front with nothing on the block in the morning to that same car on the dyno that afternoon. Without a single hiccup.. He is an incredible tech. Much respect to him.

PS: I've heard stories of John dropping the motors in from the front with nothing on the block in the morning to that same car on the dyno that afternoon. Without a single hiccup.. He is an incredible tech. Much respect to him.

I like to believe that I'm fairly comfortable working on E46s...but John has a confidence in motion that makes me feel like an amateur. Much respect from me as well.

Like mentioned no disrespect to the guys at HPF. I work for one of the biggest BMW FI installers in my province so I know what is involved with these E46s (having built my own M3 too). I was just saying, I was expecting to see the engine being disconnected from the tranny, electronics on the motor side disconnected, front rad support still on and motor being pulled out with an engine crane. Which would make for a real interesting, challanging race.

The single manifold design is going to be VERY tight, doing the turbo replacement on a 335i with original turbos is tight on its own. Chris definitely had the harder job in my (and my techs opinion). As soon as reading the title me and the guys did watch the video, but being factory trained techs and doing all the FI we do our expectations were I guess different than those who don't do this everyday. That's all. No disrespect at all intended to anyone. For guys like Chris or John, I bet they could have pulled the E46 drive train while eating the pizza just as quickly.